Matthew Prior
Matthew Prior was an influential poet and diplomat of the early 18th century, recognized for his remarkable classical education and literary contributions. He began his studies at Westminster School and continued at St. John's College, Cambridge, where his talents in poetry were noted by several patrons, including Lord Dorset. Prior was particularly known for his satirical works, which earned him the friendship of notable figures such as Jonathan Swift, and aligned him with Tory political sentiments. His diplomatic career included significant positions, such as secretary to the embassy in France and involvement in the Treaty of Utrecht negotiations.
Despite his successes, Prior faced political upheaval when the Whigs came to power, resulting in his impeachment and imprisonment. During his time in custody, he wrote "Alma: Or, The Progress of the Mind," a significant long poem reflecting on humanity's motivations with a skeptical tone. After his release in 1717, he focused on writing and enjoying life as a bon vivant. While he claimed poetry was a leisure activity, his work showcased an impressive intellectual depth and adaptability, as he skillfully incorporated colloquial language into his verse and engaged in various poetic forms, demonstrating the literary experimentation of his era.
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Matthew Prior
English poet
- Born: July 21, 1664
- Birthplace: Wimborne, England
- Died: September 18, 1721
- Place of death: Wimpole, England
Biography
The poet and diplomat Matthew Prior distinguished himself while still a child as a remarkable classical student. He was sent first to Westminster School and then to St. John’s College at Cambridge University. His poetry and his character attracted the notice of patrons, particularly Lord Dorset. Prior’s satires pleased his friends, and his achievements as a diplomat pleased the court. He became employed in a variety of such important situations as secretary to the embassy at The Hague, secretary to the negotiations of the peace of Ryswick in 1697, secretary to the embassy in France in 1698, undersecretary of state in 1699, and member of Parliament in 1701.
Prior’s literary work reflected not only the classical interest of the early eighteenth century but the very specific interest of that age in the art of satire. He won the admiration and friendship of Jonathan Swift for his keen satires on poets and politicians. He shared Swift’s Tory sympathies and while that party was in power had a good deal to do with government affairs in England, especially with negotiations for the Treaty of Utrecht that was concluded in 1713. After 1714, however, the year the Tory Party was replaced by the Whigs, Prior was removed from political office. He was, according to the ferocious political practices of his time, impeached and jailed. While in custody he wrote his most important long poem, “Alma: Or, The Progress of the Mind,” a discussion of humanity and its motivations. The tenor is fundamentally skeptical, a tone perhaps to be expected from a man writing while in prison. After 1717, when he was released, he was until his death able to devote himself to those things that mattered greatly to eighteenth century gentlemen: reading, writing, and good living. He was particularly fond of the last and was known as a bon vivant of formidable capacities.
During his lifetime Prior was widely praised for his satire and for his pastoral poems. He stated that poetry was not his principal vocation and that he preferred to think of himself as a man of affairs. Poetry was, he noted, the product of his leisure hours. Later critics tended to grant him qualities that he and his contemporaries seem to have ignored: a high degree of intellectual power and the skill to adapt classical themes and genres to the poetry of his own age. Perhaps the most significant of Prior’s poetic achievements was his reinstatement of the colloquial mode in verse; few other poets were able to take such resolutely commonplace words and make them the substance of art. He experimented in couplets and quatrains, in parodies and pastorals, and proved that, far from being wholly imitative, the early eighteenth century had its share of literary experimentalists.
Bibliography
Gildenhuys, Faith. “Convention and Consciousness in Prior’s Love Lyrics.” Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900 35, no. 3 (Summer, 1995): 437. The poetry of Prior was part of the growing eighteenth century interest in women as subjects rather than simply objects of male passion. The amorous lyrics of Prior and their popularity are examined.
Kline, Richard B. “Tory Prior and Whig Steele: A Measure of Success?” Studies in English Literature 9 (Summer, 1969): 427-437. Any evaluation of Prior’s poetry must recognize the intensely active role that politics played in his life and work. By pairing Prior with the redoubtable Whig Sir Richard Steele, Kline provides a nice sense of the complex political climate of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries.
Rippy, Frances Mayhew. Matthew Prior. New York: Twayne, 1986. An excellent assessment of Prior’s life and work, and, given the paucity of critical materials, an invaluable source book. Includes a chronology and a bibliography.
Sitter, John. “About Wit: Locke, Addison, Prior, and the Order of Things.” Rhetorics of Order/Ordering of Rhetorics in English Neoclassical Literature, edited by J. Douglas Canfield and J. Paul Hunter. Newark, N.J.: University of Delaware Press, 1989. A very nice attempt to place Prior within the early neoclassical tradition—a tradition influenced as much by the empiricist philosophy of Locke as by the “classics.”
Thorson, James L. “Matthew Prior’s ‘An Epitaph.’” The Explicator 51, no. 2 (Winter, 1993): 84. Prior’s “An Epitaph” is discussed. Prior’s theme, that retiring to the country in not an ideal but, to a thoughtful person, a sentence of mental and moral death, is beautifully exemplified.